Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner had gotten to know Jamal Adams a little bit in recent years through joint trips to the Pro Bowl or events together as representatives of the Jordan Brand.
Now the two will be teammates after the Seahawks acquired Adams in trade from the New York Jets over the weekend.
“I’ve always admired his game from afar. (And him) likewise mine,” Wagner said in a zoom call with reporters on Wednesday. “I’m excited to have him on the team, excited that we’re able to kind of get that going. Obviously it’s another play-maker on the field. Another guy that you have to respect. And so, you know, he’ll get a little bit of attention.”
Seattle traded two future first-round picks, a third-round pick and Bradley McDougald to the Jets in exchange for Adams and a fourth-round pick. While it was a large batch of assets to give up to bring Adams to Seattle, it puts another star back in the team’s secondary as they look to solidify their defense for 2020.
“I know John (Schneider) always likes to make moves, man, so I think he always does the best he can to make sure we have a great team and he’s going to make any moves he thinks is possible to do that. So I’m excited about it,” Wagner said. “I think Jamal is an amazing player. I’ve watched him from afar. He brings a lot of energy, a lot of passion to the game and I’m excited to have him on our team.”
Adams isn’t the exact same player as Kam Chancellor but he will fill a similar role in Seattle’s defense. With Quandre Diggs being brought in midseason last year, the Seahawks added a free safety that could capably handle the center field role in Pete Carroll’s preferred scheme. Adams now becomes the complement to Diggs that will play closer to the line of scrimmage.
Wagner believes that Adams will fit the role quite well for Seattle.
“He’s gonna come in and fit in just fine,” Wagner said. “A lot of times there’s certain defenses where we have a safety comes into the box, which I think he’s very comfortable in. A lot of times we have a safety come and blitz, which I think is very comfortable and so there’s a lot of things that we do that really complements his game. There’s a lot of things that we do that we feel can bring another element out of this game so I think this defense should be really, really fun for him.”